


christmas lists

by jambiscuitbuds



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Kind of angsty?, im bad at tagging, sans being santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 20:46:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5389670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jambiscuitbuds/pseuds/jambiscuitbuds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans took a deep breath. Usually he was good at being Santa for Papyrus, he could always manage to find exactly what he wanted, but this year, he was afraid he would lose his streak of always meeting every request.</p>
            </blockquote>





	christmas lists

Sans crept out of his room into the dark hallway, glancing at the clock placed on the wall. Seeing that it read the time was 2:37 in the morning, he probably could have assumed his brother would be asleep already, but the shorter skeleton still crept up to Papyrus's door to check. He pressed his ear (or, rather, the spot where an ear would be) up against the hand-written label on his younger brother's door which read, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED! NO BOYS ALLOWED! PAPYRUS ALLOWED." Sans was pleased to hear muffled snoring coming from behind the door, and continued to tiptoe his way downstairs. 

Sans was careful to open the front door as quietly as possible, creeping outside to the two mailboxes. Snow crept into his slippers, chilling him to the bone (heh, he'd have to use that pun later), as his feet crunched the snow while he walked past the door. The contrast between the two was striking; Sans cringed when he noticed how many bills were piling up in his box, but decided he'd work on that later as he went to open Papyrus's and face the matters at hand.

A single letter sat inside of his brother's mailbox, and Sans pulled it out and read the familiar handwriting on the envelope. He carefully shoved the letter in the pocket of his blue hoodie and silently made his way back to his room.

After nearly waking his brother by making the stairs creak by accident, Sans was relieved to finally reach his room. Knowing his room was soundproof enough that Papyrus couldn't hear anything, he practically jumped onto the mattress he used as a bed. He pulled out the letter from his pocket and glanced at the jar sitting on his dresser, filled about three fourths of the way with gold coins; he had been saving his spare change all year so he could afford nice presents for his brother. As he unfolded the letter, Sans made a silent wish that Papyrus hadn't asked for anything too expensive (Earlier that week when Sans had asked him, Papyrus refused to even give a single hint, not only because only Santa could know, but also because he had a "VERY SPECIAL SECRET WISH".) 

Around the edges of the paper were four connecting lines of crudely drawn bones with what Sans suspected to be Christmas lights wrapped around them.

"DEAR SANTA,

HELLO!! AS YOU CAN TELL, IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WRITING TO YOU AGAIN AS IT IS NOW ALMOST CHRISTMAS TIME!! HOW HAVE YOU BEEN? I HOPE YOU HAVE BEEN DOING WELL. IT HAS BEEN AROUND A YEAR SINCE I LAST WROTE TO YOU, AND YOU BROUGHT ME EVERYTHING I ASKED FOR!! SPEAKING OF WHICH, I HAVE SEVERAL REQUESTS FOR WHAT I WISH FOR THIS YEAR.

FIRST, I WOULD LIKE A NEW SET OF ACTION FIGURINES!! NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE OTHER FIGURINES YOU HAVE GIVEN ME IN THE PAST, BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY MAY GET... LONELY. I DON'T MIND WHAT TYPE OF ACTION FIGURES THEY ARE, I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE GOOD TASTE IN PICKING THEM OUT! (NOT AS GOOD OF A TASTE AS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE, BUT YOU ARE STILL RATHER TALENTED AT PICKING THEM OUT!)" Okay, that was doable. Sans could probably go to Alphys for advice on picking out some good figures, as he knew that the scientist had several of her own. 

"NEXT, THERE IS A CERTAIN DISH I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE, BUT I DO NOT HAVE THE PROPER MATERIALS FOR MAKING IT. IT IS CALLED "LASAGNA", HAVE YOU HEARD OF IT? IT IS LIKE SPAGHETTI, BUT IN CAKE FORM!! I NEED A CERTAIN TYPE OF DISH TO COOK IT, BUT I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND ONE ANYWHERE. I WOULD VERY MUCH APPRECIATE IF YOU WOULD BRING ME ONE SO THAT I COULD PREPARE DELICIOUS "LASAGNA" FOR ALL OF MY FRIENDS!! I HAVE DRAWN YOU A PICTURE OF WHAT THE PAN LOOKS LIKE FOR YOUR REFERENCE." Sans felt his already permanent smile grow wider in a silent chuckle when he saw the image his brother had drawn of a rectangle with two smaller rectangles on each side, which he assumed were meant to be handles on a pan. Sans made a mental note to ask Grillby later if he had any spare dishes he could buy.

"LASTLY- YES, I KNOW, MY LIST THIS YEAR IS QUITE SHORTER THAN MY PREVIOUS ONES, BUT THAT IS BECAUSE I HAVE A SPECIAL REQUEST. I KNOW IT MAY BE HARD TO GET, BUT YOU'VE MANAGED TO GET ME NEARLY EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER ASKED FOR, SO I BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN GET IT!! THIS IS NOT EXACTLY A MATERIAL ITEM I DESIRE, BUT IT IS INFINITELY MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN ANY ACTION FIGURINE OR LASAGNA DISH." Sans grew slightly worried. If this "special request" was as difficult to find as Papyrus said, and seeing how much Papyrus seemed to want it... Sans kept reading.

"THIS ISN'T EVEN SO MUCH OF A PRESENT FOR ME AS IT IS FOR MY BROTHER." Wait, what? "WHILE I DO SINCERELY WANT THIS, IT IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT FOR SANS THAN FOR ME THAT I RECEIVE THIS.

MY LAST REQUEST FOR THIS CHRISTMAS IS FOR MY BROTHER TO BE HAPPY AGAIN." Shit. "HE'S BEEN VERY... NOT GOOD LATELY, BUT HE NEVER SEEMS TO TALK ABOUT IT OR ANYTHING. IT CANNOT BE VERY HEALTHY FOR HIM TO BOTTLE THIS ALL UP, BUT EVERY TIME ANYONE TRIES TO ASK HIM ABOUT IT HE JUST MAKES SOME SORT OF BAD PUN. I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO. HE STILL MAKES JOKES ALL OF THE TIME, AND HE'S ALWAYS SMILING, BUT I CAN TELL HE ISN'T ACTUALLY HAPPY. I HAVEN'T SEEN HIM TRULY HAPPY IN SUCH A LONG TIME. I DON'T KNOW WHY HE'S ALWAYS SO SAD, WAS IT ME? DID I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, DO SOMETHING... NOT GREAT, THAT MADE HIM LIKE THIS?"

Sans couldn't make out the next few words because his tears have fallen on them, smearing the ink around. He could barely make out a few words that say, "LOVE... BROTHER..." but that was it. He stared at the wet handwriting of the brother he loved so much, trying and failing to suppress the overwhelming guilt that welled up in the area where his stomach would be. Damn. Was it really that obvious? He tried his best to hide it from his brother, but clearly his best wasn't good enough. (Not like it was the only time he wasn't good enough.) And Papyrus thought that it was his fault... Sans wiped a stray tear off of his chin with his bony hand before the droplet could fall onto the paper.

"WELL, ON A HAPPIER NOTE, I WILL BE MAKING A NEW RECIPE I LEARNED FROM UNDYNE FOR YOU ON CHRISTMAS EVE!! THEY ARE CALLED "SPAGHOOKIES", AND THEY ARE VERY DELICIOUS!! I BELIEVE YOU WILL ENJOY THEM VERY MUCH. UNTIL THEN, I WISH YOU GOOD LUCK WITH GRANTING EVERYONE'S CHRISTMAS WISHES!! I WILL SEE YOU ON CHRISTMAS EVE!!

LOVE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS

(P.S. TELL THE REINDEER I SAY HELLO!!  
P.P.S. WOULD YOU PREFER YOUR SPAGHOOKIES TO HAVE CHOCOLATE CHIPS OR TOMATO SAUCE? OR PERHAPS BOTH?!  
P.P.S.S. PLEASE DON'T TELL SANS ABOUT THE LAST REQUEST. I MEAN, I KNOW YOU WOULD NEVER TELL, BUT STILL... I KNOW HOW HARD HE TRIES TO HIDE IT ALL, AND IF HE FOUND OUT THAT I FOUND OUT, IT MIGHT JUST MAKE HIM SADDER.)"

Sans took a deep breath. Usually he was good at being Santa for Paps, he could always manage to find exactly what he wanted, but this year, he was afraid he would lose his streak of always meeting every request. Papyrus had so much faith in Santa, and Sans couldn't let him lose that, not when even mentioning the made-up gift bringer brought a special sparkle to his brother's eye sockets that nothing else could bring.

Sans couldn't go a single day without feeling like he was drowning in his own emptiness and self-loathing. What the fuck was he going to do, now?

Wiping away one last stray tear (how can skeletons cry, anyway, if they don't even have any eyes in the first place?, he wondered to himself), Sans folded up the letter and slid it back in the envelope labelled, "TO SANTA!!". He then carefully tossed it to the pile with the rest of the old letters addressed to the same, jolly old man that Sans definitely was not. He didn't know what to do. 

With one final exhausted sigh, Sans shut off the flashlight he used as a lamp and tried to ignore the shame that swallowed him whole. 

Why did Papyrus have to be so damn smart?

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally going to end with some sort of cheesy joke but this took a different turn
> 
> also i have ideas for another chapter or two but idk if i should post it or just leave it like this


End file.
